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Texans Lead the Charge Against Government Moblie Spying

Privacy experts say that a pair of new mobile privacy
bills recently introduced in Texas are among the “most sweeping” ever
seen. And they say the proposed legislation offers better protection
than a related privacy bill introduced this week in Congress.

If passed, the new bills would
establish a well-defined, probable-cause-driven warrant requirement for
all location information. That's not just data from GPS, but
potentially pen register, tap and trace, and tower location data as well. Such data would be disclosed
to law enforcement "if there is probable cause to believe the records
disclosing location information will provide evidence in a criminal
investigation."

Further, the bills would require an annual transparency report from mobile carriers to the public and to the state government. Under current federal case law and statute, law enforcement generally has broad warrantless powers to not only track suspects
in real-time based on their phone data, but also to access records of
where and when calls were made or text messages were sent or
received—and all of this is provided by the carriers.

Under the leadership of the Democratic and Republican parties, and the US Supreme Court have demonstrated themselves to be dangerous threats to Constitutional rights and liberties in the United States. It is long past time for the people and the states to push back.